


After All this Time?

by SilverGuardian (TheGuardian219)



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 14000605 realities, Angst, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Gen, Watching Harry Potter, iron strange if you squint, squint really hard, stephen strage has a heart, wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-14
Updated: 2019-05-14
Packaged: 2020-03-04 21:44:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18821332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGuardian219/pseuds/SilverGuardian
Summary: 14,000,605 realities and his favorite will always be the one where they watched Harry Potter after finding out Stepehen hasn't seen nor read it before."You've kept him alive so he can die at the proper moment."





	After All this Time?

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't sleep so I'll just leave this here.

The time stone will always come first. That’s what Stephen told himself, what he’s told Stark back in the space ship.

And at the first few future he’s seen, that’s what he does. He ran first. When the battle obviously beginning to look one-sided, that Thanos was _playing_ with them, he did not hesitate to open up a portal and jump straight back to earth. He barely had half an hour before Thanos tracked him down and took the stone from his hands. Stephen saw himself struggle but it was obvious that it was useless.

He tried again, seeing how he stayed in Titan and fought. This time he took the others back with him to earth. Thanos still got the stone.

In another reality, he witnessed the final stand in Wakanda. How a woman he later met as Wanda destroyed the Mind Stone. Stephen witnessed how Thanos’ rage ripped that reality asunder.

By the time he reached a hundred he was wondering if they were destined to lose.

Thanos’ voice haunted his mind, _“I am inevitable.”_

By two hundred he’s memorized everybody’s names.

Not every future was long, some was as short as a butterfly’s life.

He saw a future where he cut off Thanos’ arm off. They had five years before more followers of Thanos returned to finish the _martyr’s_ destiny.

He went ahead and saw how they managed to get the gauntlet off Thanos.

This is when Stephen fully realized a pattern. Whenever he saw a ‘win’, it was just a short break, an interlude, before some greater big bad would show up and turn them all to dust. If they were lucky.

And he further explored those short ‘wins’ and found himself stumped.

He saw himself spending time with the other avengers. Hanging out in the Avengers Tower, having debate with Stark over magic and technology. Discussing the physics of his ‘magic’ to dr. Banner. Hearing so many pop culture references from Parker. The teenager took great pleasure in calling him “Doctor” and calling himself a companion.

“Could you do a British accent Doctor Strange? Oh, and hold this sonic screwdriver please.”

At first everything was a bit awkward, after the victory party mourning those who have fallen, but they moved on. He once had quite the talk with Captain Rogers about time.

When he hit two thousand he knew them, truly knew them. Almost every reality flashed faster than a blink of an eye but in that instance, he got to understand them.

Somewhere along the line, douchebag turned to Stark.

Some would say the two of them couldn’t stand in the room together for very long because their egos wouldn’t have enough room, and they’d be right.

“I want to make my life count. Every second, every moment.”

“It does count.”

He felt himself freeze as he watched himself and Stark one night discussing their past, he watched as the next day progressed and how Stark was designing another new inventio with multiple doctors on the line.

Further along, Stark became Tony.

“Well?”

He’s in the millions now. But he couldn’t stop himself from laughing at this.

“What do you want?”

Stark huffed in mock annoyance as Parker settled in the couch. “Does Hogwarts exist or not?”

“Does _what_ exist?”

The Tower went silent and Stephen felt all eyes on him. It was Hawkeye who broke the silence. “Oh man, you haven’t seen Harry Potter? You!?”

They had a Potter marathon that day and Peter insisted he borrow all of his seven books.

Tony had him sorted. He thought Tony was more of a Gryffindor but he was oddly surprised to find himself sorted with him. “Not all slytherins are bad you know!”

And that reality, with variations along the 3,000th , was Stephen’s favorite. Thanos returned three years later and all was lost.

When he reached ten million he was almost sure that they were destined to lose. But he remembered everyone, how everyone fought, how everyone died, how Tony smiled at the end despite everything, how people screamed as they were destroyed molecule by molecule.

And then Stephen watched as he gave the time stone to Thanos.

And he fought against the hope blooming in his chest. _Whatever it takes_. This had to work.

He saw how everything went wrong, how Thanos seemingly won but then—

He was about to turn away, to look for another reality when five years later what was left of the Avengers gathered again.

He’s already seen Morgan Stark. She almost always there in the realities he thought they’d won.

Natasha and he were never close but her wit and skill always had him amazed. But it was her loyalty that truly made her death all the more painful. _Whatever it takes._

And then the Hulk made the snap and Stephen wanted to scream in joy because of it.

And then Thanos came.

He had to admit, the moment when everyone arrived sent goosebumps to his skin and he would have paid great money to watch it in film. Hopefully in the Tower without all the chattering of Peter and Tony.

And then he was in denial. No. Not him.

Tony. Tony who tried to install a voice to his cloak. Tony who wanted to help him steady his hands despite everyone telling him its useless. Tony who had a wife and a kid he didn’t want to leave. Tony who rivalled his own ego. Tony who was always willing to sacrifice his own life.

Stephen went forward, five, ten, fifty years. It was the one shot—no, _a_ shot to defeating Thanos.

He moved again, searching more frantically, focusing on what could be made different.

Out of all realities, surely there are other ways. Another voice spurred him on, _“I am Iron Man.”_

He gave himself fifteen minutes in the real world, his time was almost running out.

He watched his friends die over and over and over. People who didn’t know him as much as he knew them. People he spent years with in a blink of an eye probably doesn’t even know his name.

There was nothing. A minute left and he went back to that _one_ reality. He needs to know what would exactly happen, to memorize it and commit it to his memory. No matter how painful.

He cursed when he saw himself appear after five years. Recalling a reality so long ago.

 ** _“You’ve kept him alive so he could die at the proper moment.”_** He screamed at himself as he watched himself raise one shaky finger.

And with that he returned.

“You’re back, you’re alright.” Stephen was startled when he looked at Sta- _Tony’s_ eyes. They were still talking but his mind was trying to play catch up.

“How many futures did you see?”

“14,000,605”

“How many did we win?”

He looked into those eyes again and he steeled himself. _Whatever it takes._

“One.”

And as the battle commenced just as Stephen remembered, he wondered about those realities that were doomed.

**_“Don’t tell me now that you’ve grown to care for him?”_ **

Stephen watched the glow of the Time Stone, wondering if he had looked harder, he’d find another way.

“Tony.” He called out as he watched the others disappear. “There was no other way.”

_“If it comes to saving you, or the kid, or the time stone; I will not hesitate to let either of you die. I can’t because the universe depends on it.”_

When he saw him again, when he told him that it was their _one_ shot against Thanos—

**_“After all this time?”_ **

Fourteen million, six-hundred and five realities. Tony made the snap and Stephen held it together because _nobody_ else has seen what he has seen. The guilt was overwhelming but as he met Tony’s eyes, met the eyes of someone he’s shared so much across different realities, so much across borrowed time—

“Always.”


End file.
